Compare the Candidates

See at a glance where the presidential contenders stand on climate and energy issues

Scroll down to compare the views of presidential candidates on climate and energy issues. Or narrow the chart down to compare just two: you can click on a candidate’s picture to make their row disappear, then click here to restore the full chart.

Find out more about candidates’ environmental stances in Grist’s special election series: How Green Is Your Candidate? (And click here for info about the candidates who’ve dropped out of the race.)

Calls for getting 10% of U.S. electricity from renewables by 2012, and 25% by 2025. Proposes investing $150 billion over 10 years in renewables, advanced biofuels, efficiency, and other clean tech, and says this will help create 5 million green jobs.

Calls for 60 billion gallons of “advanced biofuels” [PDF] like cellulosic ethanol to be produced in the U.S. each year by 2030. Proposes federal tax incentives and other inducements to help develop the advanced biofuels.

Has said we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix, but has also said nuclear is not a great optionbecause of problems with safety and storage and because it usually requires big government subsidies.

Supports a carbon tax instead of a cap-and-trade program, with a goal of cutting U.S. emissions at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Would auction off emission credits starting at $50 per ton of carbon-dioxide equivalent, making polluters pay for the right to emit greenhouse gases.

Opposes opening additional U.S. waters to offshore oil drilling, and calls for “a full reevaluation of energy development in our offshore waters.”

Supports raising fuel-economy standards. In 2000 and 2004, called for increasing standards for cars to 45 miles per gallon and light trucks to 35 mpg, to be phased in over five years.

Opposes a cap-and-trade system.Says, “It makes far more sense to use American ingenuity and technology to adapt to future changes in the climate than to wreck the economy in order to prevent temperature increases that may never occur.”